With enrollments on rise, board OKs bigger budgets

Friday, Aug. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Budgets totaling more than $2.4 billion to educate students from kindergarten through college are being proposed for the coming two years -- up more than 30 percent from the present spending program.

The State Board of Education Thursday approved a $1.6 billion budget, with most of it going to the 17 local school districts.

The Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada today prepared to endorse an $885.7 million two-year spending program.

The public school budget is up about 30 percent and the proposed spending by the university system would jump by 37 percent.

A good chunk of the money will go toward increased enrollment. The 255,000 students in the public schools are expected to increase 12.8 percent to 304,000 by the 1998-99 fiscal year, according to Douglas Thunder, a deputy superintendent in the state Department of Education.

The budget for the university is suggesting a 5 percent increase per year as it embarks on a program to entice more high school graduates. And it envisions starting a law school at UNLV.

The board of education has recommended a 3 1/2-percent pay raise each year for public school teachers. The regents are recommending a 6 percent salary increase for faculty the first year of the biennium and 4 percent the second year.

The $1.6 billion for the public school system will come both from state and federal funds -- but most of it from the state. The budget of the university envisions $703.3 million of the total $865.7 million coming from the state; $129.8 million from tuition and fees and the remaining $28.6 million from other sources.

These proposed spending programs will be delivered to the state budget office, where they may be trimmed.

Under the plan adopted by the board of education, the state would send $1.2 billion to local school districts over the two years.

Using the same formula as now exists, the basic support by the state would rise from the present average $3,665 per student to $3,790 in 1997-98 and $3,889 in 1998-99. Special education units -- classrooms for the disabled -- would increase from the present 1,746 to 2,080. And the present $26,739 that the state provides would go up to $28,214 for each unit.

The education board also agreed to include $14.9 million for further class-size reductions in the primary grades or for other improvement programs the districts might favor.

The 1995 Legislature put aside $7.3 million to allow schools to reduce class sizes to 16 students for each teacher in the third-grade -- the level that is now in first and second grades. But the Legislature permitted the districts flexibility in using that money.

The only dissenting vote on the education board came from Patty Krajcech of Las Vegas who said the $14.9 million should be used only to complete the third-grade class-size reduction, and not for other programs that are not yet specified.

University Chancellor Richard S. Jarvis said the system's budget is built on these key assumptions:

* That enough money will be made available to serve the academic and support needs of the 70,000 students, so that quality will be maintained despite increasing enrollments.

* That the system will encourage greater participation by high school graduates. Only 37.6 percent of Nevada's high school graduates now go directly to a two- or four-year college. This is more than 20 percent below the national average.

The university's budget does not include the $97.9 million it seeks from the state for construction projects. And the public school budget does not include the local property taxes and sales tax revenues available to the districts.